Maybe your English skills are mediocre comparing to the people in this country, but, this, unfortunately, won't BE the case, when you go to a predominantly, English-speaking, locale, a huge PIECE of that HUMBLE PIE, served to, Y-O-U…translated…
First stop in Ireland, the downpour, after a few minutes walking, my soles fell, off, got mud all over my feet, I'd looked, awful. As I returned back to the tour bus, the couple from South Africa looked at me curiously, I'd, lifted my feet up to show them, "I lost my heels!"
The wife took a look, corrected me, "oh, you'd lost your, soles!"
what you'd, become, before the predominantly ENGLISH-SPEAKING people...illustration from online
Sorry, not articulate enough in English, a bit, awkward, so I'd, made fun of my self, "yes, I'd, lost my, sole (soul).", I'd, paused a bit, then, "But I still have my heart!"
As the day passes, I'd bought another new pair, and soon as I got back on the bus, I'd, gloated, "I found my sole (soul)." And added, "and still kept my heart. I thought I was, humorous, and can joke around in, English.
And yet, at supper time, we were in conversation mode with the couples from New Zealand and South Africa, I'd found that my communication skills needed a ton of, work, couldn't understand what the punch line was in their jokes, and couldn't catch up to the current events they were discussing, and found myself, mostly, just, chuckling along.
Talking with them on the movies, I couldn't, match the Chinese title up with the English, let alone the movie stars: I had no problems pronouncing Paul Newman, and Natasha Henstridge, can't remember what the initials of the actress in Sand Dune was, and what N.B.A. stood for either.
Movies are, a dead-end, so, let's talk about politics then, I'd told them of the situation of foreign affairs of Taiwan. But, how do I pronounce "Swatini" and "Burkina Faso"? They couldn't understand me, even as I told them about Swaziland, they couldn't understand either. Later I'd looked up the pronunciations in the dictionaries, and found, that the emphasis of the tone in Swaziland was up front, instead of how I'd stated it, on the back.
and here's what thought about your English skills before you met up with those whom spoke, English as their, FIRST language...so proud of how articulate you are in English...photo from online
Movies, N.B.A., politics, all dead end now, then, let's talk about the trips then. Thankful, everybody had been to many countries, with many tales to tell, and finally, there's no, dead silence.
Thinking back to, actually, there are the traces of everything. In the medical conferences, when the various nationality lecturers delivered their speeches, I'd always felt that the Taiwanese speakers spoke English the best, that I can, understand every word and, every sentence, while for others, whether or English is native or not, I'd needed time to adjust myself to their, accents: like for the Irish, there would be the uplifted tone of voice like the second in the phonetic alphabets in Chinese; the accent from England had that noble feel, from Australia, there's that prairie feel to the sounds; in the Southern U.S., the southern accents, the easter, the eastern accents; while for the Indian accent, I'd felt that the individual was, bobbing her/his head nonstop; the Italians never missed out on the final accent of the words….plus, there were the, individual differences of uses in the words, sentences of the regions, and the individual differences of the words to speak, it's quite difficult, using just, my auditory to try and comprehend what was told, thankfully in the conferences, there would be the visual aids of the slides, which made it, easier to understand.
Having attended many medical conferences, I'd thought my English was, articulate enough, I can adapt to the accents. I'd listened to the books in English on tapes, or the English Podcasts, on a wide variety of subjects, history, geography, humanities, management, medical, myths, travel………I can use the playback speed of 1.2 times to 1.5 times; and on the international conferences using English to give the lectures, although, I'd stuttered here and there, there's, not that serious a, problem, and, a foreigner in my treatment clinic commented that I spoke English with a, German, accent.
But, this feeling of "feel-good-about-myself", when it came to the casual conversations, with the subjects too widened and too broad, I'd found, that I'd previously, lived in, that bubble, not using my mother tongue, I'd begun, stuttering, the cultural differences, the differences in pronunciation, the uses of the words, it'd, caused great difficulties my communications. And all of these, wasn't what I'd, expected at all.
So, here's that needed piece of, HUMBLE cake for ya! You go on this trip, with predominantly western people, and, you'd become, tongue-tied, because, they used English every day, it'd become, natural to them, while, although in your field of work, you may need to deliver your lectures to the visiting doctors or other professionals in English, but that's it. You do NOT use English on a day-to-day basis, so naturally, you can't be articulate enough, and this country does NOT have the English learning environment for people here, to hone up on their listening, speaking skills either. HECK! I'd taken, like three, four semesters of English CRAM school before I went to the U.S., and guess what, I was STUNNED, when I got placed in the regular classes, couldn't understand a single WORD out of anybody's MOUTH then…
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